[Hokage] Terukawa

The room is dim, and the fire is flickering, but when the orange-red warm light soaks into the corners, there are only a few faint veils that outline the outline.The people's shadows are dragged long and thin and paradoxical - but the eyes are only fixedly focused on the burning heart of the furnace.

At this moment, the sound of shallow or deep breathing and the crackling sound of burning wood are lingering in my ears, and across the wall, the wanton wind and snow in the barren mountains are dancing wildly between the heaven and the earth.

I feel the long-lost tranquility, even time seems to stop at this moment.

I began to quietly look at the details in this warehouse that were originally covered by darkness.

The first is the doors and windows.All the windows are nailed with wooden boards and iron sheets. Even so, some details are handled very rough. The gaps between the wooden boards and the iron sheets are not paid attention to. There are always narrow and bright windows. The light persistently poked its head out from the pile of broken copper and rotten iron, making the whole warehouse dark, but not really as airtight as a coffin.It's just that it was a snowy night, and the moon happened to slip into the clouds, and the snow field outside the house darkened again and again, which made the room look extremely dark. If it was daytime, maybe a few bright whites could be squeezed in.

wall.There are things that shouldn't be there, and things that should be there are not.The former refers to bloodstains, and the latter refers to clocks.On the high wall, there are a few regularly distributed wooden protrusions that are extremely suspicious. I always look inexplicably familiar, but I really can't recognize it. It is probably an incomplete trace left after something was disassembled.

Overhead beams.Nothing.

fireplace.This was not something worth noting originally, but now that it is used, it has to be included in my consideration.The air in the house is pure, and there is no heavy smoke, which shows that the upper flue is complete and unobstructed.This is certainly a good thing, but the smoke from the burning wood is also very conspicuous in the snow, so if I am lucky, I can at least spend the night peacefully. If I am not lucky... I will be called by the bandits in a while to drink tea.However, I have paid more attention when lighting the fireplace. The wood is ordinary wood, and there is nothing weird in the hearth. It was difficult to ignite before because the wood was too wet and the people in the house lacked effective means of ignition.

He moved his lower back calmly - damn it, I know why no one came to sit in this corner - there was a small gap that was blowing cold wind into the room.The chakra next to me made me not afraid of the cold and heat, so I just changed a part to block the wind eye, and fell into thinking again.

There was nothing in the house worthy of special attention.I just came up with this idea, and suddenly I was attracted by the light spots reflected from a few stars in my peripheral vision.

Right next to those two young ninjas, is that... a puddle of blood?

By the light of the fire, I could barely see a little.It turned out that the wooden boards around them had been deformed into a shape with protruding edges and a hollow in the middle due to the old and accumulated damp, and now they were full of blood, and the rest of the blood had to accumulate in the hollow in the middle—that is, The puddles of blood I saw.

The blood was basically fresh.

I squinted my eyes and carefully observed the texture of the surface of the blood puddle.

In other words, the red-haired ninja hasn't been able to stop the bleeding so far.He was given a drug that blocks the blood clotting function of the human body, or a weapon that was smeared with this drug.

This is determined to put him to death.

After all, ninjas are just people.If you want to safely ensure that a ninja dies painfully enough, just block his movement and drain the blood.

As long as the place of imprisonment is sufficiently concealed, even if the bones are rotten, they may not be discovered.

Um, wait...a flash came to my mind.

Drugs that block blood clotting, Chakra seals, and the imprisoning of "bandits" with unknown meanings.

A few seemingly irrelevant clues were put together, but they suddenly seemed to have a very subtle connection with each other. I quickly sorted out my thoughts in my mind:

——Oh, it turns out that this is a one-stop service to send you back home!

They are interlocking and there are few flaws.If you want to be more cautious so that no one notices it, you only need to assign these three steps to three different groups of people to do it, or you can simply save these troubles and let the same group of people play more times role play.

This is a very annoying person, so what if it's the red-haired "Uzumaki Clan"?

I sighed a little, and the ninja seemed to feel it too, and nervously raised his hand to straighten his iconic long dark red hair.

Withdrawing my thoughts from irrelevant details, the next important thing... It seems that there is no more important thing, all I have to do is wait.After all, the fireplace was only lit after I entered the house. Even if it had no other function than heating and lighting, a group of experienced gangsters would never tolerate such acts of resistance that challenged their absolute authority.

——"Without our permission, how dare you, a prisoner, do such unnecessary things?"

What they enjoy is this kind of absolute superior authority and psychological oppression over the weak, although it has no practical significance, but... Deliberately savoring happiness from the fear of the weak, it seems to coincide with some of the darkness of human beings. The nature is consistent.

All in all, I have done a lot of similar dirty work that needs to be sneaked into. I have seen a lot and have rich experience.

In the silent night when the flames were burning, I curled up like a ball in a corner that could barely be touched by the flames, even breathing very slowly.

Huddled in this small airtight corner, even a mouse would not be willing to come here to suffer from the cold, and no one would notice my movements——

"Hey, the one shrunken like a mouse, that old bastard is calling you, you can throw your ears out to feed the snakes if you don't need them."

"Ah, ah?" I reacted in astonishment, pointing to myself, "Me?"

It was the hysterical nobleman just now. He still looked abnormal at this time, but he seemed to be much better than before—only relatively speaking.

"She has called you 'baby' three times and you didn't hear me at all, and I called you 'mouse', but you suddenly realized that I was calling you. Is your self-perception a dirty dog? Dirty mouse? I think you are seriously ill, but it is reasonable! After all, how can a normal person enter the mountain in this weather? Isn’t that just courting death! I knew it when I was four years old..."

I ignored the increasingly absurd words and deeds of the nobleman, glanced at him, and locked an old woman in the corner of the common people.She was wearing an extremely shabby light-colored cotton-padded jacket, her hair was scattered all over her head, the years had curled up on her face, there were not many eyebrows left when she stretched her face, and there were not many teeth left when she smiled.

"Hey, kid," she beckoned to me, then patted the ground beside her, "Sit here."

……I?

The sheer kindness of the mission, I wink, for the first time.It's a little... off guard.

I subconsciously glanced at the faces of the other civilians around her—some with soft expressions, some with wandering eyes, and some with indifference, but in general, most of them had rejection and malice written all over their faces.

That's right, this is the mental state that a person who has been locked up for a long time should have. How can he not be ashamed of his kindness like this old man?What's more, my image of being powerless is indeed a disguise - it is because I am too old, so I have problems with even the most basic vigilance, right?Otherwise, casually showing kindness to strangers in this year?How dare you.

"Grandma, this is not appropriate," I said.

The old man let out a "huh", but turned his head to this side, his tone raised and his face was blank - well, ninety-nine out of ten didn't hear what I was saying - she patted her side again looked at me and said, "Come on, good boy, come to grandma, it's cold over there."

...But I still have tasks to complete. Hiding among ordinary people may be better concealed, but I will still be bound.

"Thank you grandma, but it's inappropriate, and I'm not used to being crowded with others." So this time I not only amplified my voice, but also shook my head and waved my hands, and made enough body movements.

This time I finally understood.She stayed there for a while, then slowly blinked and nodded at me, and only said "be careful", and then returned to silence.

There was a sneer from the shadow behind her, I didn't take it seriously, it's better to be regarded as a hypocritical nobleman than to be restrained in everything.

Let's see when these gangsters will come to trouble me.

The wind and snow outside the house were in full swing, the wind was whimpering, the flames were rising inside the house, and the wood was crackling and cracking.The tired people quieted down quickly, and the sound of breathing that had become heavy due to the communication between the old man and me returned to stability and silence within a few minutes.The warm fire drove the cold wind out, and transpired a halo of sleep in the air.

After scanning the room for a week, I slowly closed my eyes.Proper rest will lead to a better state, and the habit of light sleep is enough for me to deal with most changes.The Wakizashi hidden in my arms has faintly touched my side ribs. The sheath that I paid for recently fit the shape of the blade tightly, and there was no sound of collision. I adjusted my posture slightly to allow rest and possible The movement of drawing a knife can be a little more comfortable.

Close your eyes, all the sounds around your body seem to be immersed in warm water, becoming chaotic and hazy.It's just that I don't know how long it took, some broken and sporadic whispers leaked into my ears——

"... hurt... rest..."

"The task... the leader... Konoha..."

"... Jiraiya-sensei...?"

"Jiraiya will eventually...death...cannot be relied on..."

"..."

"I... just... seal it?"

"I don't know... the extent of Hanzo..."

"..."

"..."

"...wait for the opportunity."

... wait for the opportunity.I see.

I sigh in twilight.

Yeah, wait for your chance.

The wind and snow have gradually subsided, and the morning light has not fully illuminated the world, and there is a chaos from far to near.I opened my eyes at the right time and looked towards the door, only to hear the clatter of metal and iron, the lock fell and the door opened wide.

Three or four big men rushed through the door all at once.The two stood at the door and watched coldly, and one of them carried a large bucket and headed straight for the fireplace. With a "wow", the quiet burning flame was poured by a bucket of ice water, and before it could flicker, it was poured by several people. A piece of crushed ice was firmly pressed to death under the firewood.

The remaining one looked around, and finally their eyes stopped on me.

I looked up, meeting his gaze.

He came over and squatted down.

"You lit the fire." He said firmly.

I nodded.

"Beautiful," he laughed, "you have never been locked up here, you are not afraid of death, get up by yourself or brothers help you?"

So I stood up without a word.

"Hey, isn't this very clear?" The big man hooked my neck vigorously, as if I was not a prisoner, but a brother whom he treated sincerely.At the same time, those thin and tough cords wrapped around my hands and feet again.